Integrated circuit search engine devices are widely used to perform linear searches of input search keys to find best match keys. In order to facilitate searching, an integrated search engine device may include a plurality of serially connected stages, a respective one of which is configured to store therein a respective level of search keys in a multilevel tree of search keys, such as a B-tree of search keys. The serially connected stages include a first or root level stage that is responsive to an input search key, and a last or leaf level stage that is configured to identify the best match key for the input search key. A handle memory also is provided, including a plurality of handle memory locations, a respective one of which is configured to store a search result handle, also generally referred to as a handle. The handle memory is responsive to the last level stage to retrieve a handle that corresponds to the best match key.
Integrated circuit search engine devices may be used in many applications. One application is that of a route accelerator that supports search acceleration for packet forwarding in a router.